In 1968 engineers Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore left Fairchild Semiconductor to form their own company. Forty years later, that company is Intel, and it is the world’s leading supplier of the semiconductor components which drive the digital economy. I visited Intel’s corporate headquarters a few weeks ago to report the corporate profile which is on NBR tonight and record an exclusive interview with Intel CEO Paul Otellini, which will be shown tomorrow.
What is most impressive when you talk to employees of this giant company, with 2007 revenue of $38.3 billion, is the drive for innovation. They quote an amazing statistic, which says most of Intel’s revenue comes from products which have been on the market for less than a year.
They firmly believe that if they fail to keep up this remarkable rate of development, they will lost their marketing leading position. And so they spend $5 or $6 billion each year on research and development. And spend another $600 to $700 million investing in other companies which Intel believes will create devices and applications to drive future demand for Intel products.
